"The U.S. media model works beautifully: For the governing, that is -- not the governed," writes Stephan Richter for the Globalist. "What is truly shocking about the state of the U.S. media today is that, to an amazing extent, the belief to restrict themselves to the facts -- as they are provided by the government -- is willingly accepted by the mainstream U.S. media. ... In most countries around the world, journalists choose their profession with a proud claim that they are part of a permanent opposition.

The State Department has issued a request for proposals for "an advertising campaign targeting Arab-language media on the web with the goal of explaining U.S. policy in the Middle East," O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports. "As part of that work, State also wants to pitch its 'Rebuilding Afghanistan' Arabic site to show that 'the U.S. follows through with its obligations and promises,' according to a copy of the proposal.

The vacationing George W. Bush recently said from his Crawford, Texas ranch, "We've made a lot of progress" in Iraq. The pronouncement was timed with the White House release of a 24-page report called "Results in Iraq: 100 Days Toward Security and Freedom". Detailing "highlights of the successes" in Iraq, the report -- prepared by the White House Office of Global Communications and the staff of L. Paul Bremer, the U.S.